Elon Musk Skips Election Day Town Hall to Post About Men and Steak

It was barely the afternoon of Election Day on the East Coast when Elon Musk decided, based on vague claims of high male turnout he saw online, that men would deliver Donald Trump a decisive victory in a close presidential race.

The MAGA billionaire — who has poured at least $119 million into his pro-Trump Super PAC and toured Pennsylvania in a concerted effort to flip the crucial swing state red — first shared a post on X (formerly Twitter ) from an anonymous account: "Hearing reports from all over the country that men are showing up in huge numbers," the user claimed . "The line at my polling station here in Florida is almost all young men." The post included a meme of Trump, implying that said young men backed the Republican nominee. Musk added his own take to this anecdotal, vibes-based assessment. "This is a massive sea change," he wrote .

Seemingly on the basis of little besides this unconfirmed assertion from an unnamed Floridian, Musk went a step further in his next X post. "The cavalry has arrived," he declared . "Men are voting in record numbers. They now realize everything is at stake." The comments suggested an effort to counter the narrative that Vice President Kamala Harris could best Trump because she's strongly outperforming him with women, who have cast far more ballots than men in early voting across the U.S. (including, yes, in Florida ). It is far too early to tell if male turnout could eventually eclipse female turnout, or if men are voting in "record numbers," but more women than men have registered and voted in every presidential election since 1980.

Trump does have a polling edge with male voters, though not as significant as the one Harris has with women. Political observers have predicted a significant gender gap in the 2024 results in part because the female Democratic nominee campaigned on reproductive rights in a post- Dobbs environment. (It surely didn't help Trump that he is known for misogynist comments and was found liable for sexual abuse in a civil suit.) Rather than try to appeal to disaffected women, though, Trump made the rounds on podcasts and streaming channels popular with young men in an effort to turn out a low-propensity demographic that otherwise might stay home. Editor's picks

Since it remains an open question whether this strategy actually paid off or not, Musk's early prediction was as much wishful thinking as anything else. He likewise declared on Tuesday, "Good chance [New Hampshire] goes red," without pointing to any reason for thinking so. Polling averages show Harris has a comfortable lead over Trump in the state.

Musk engaged in this election forecasting on X instead of showing up for a scheduled virtual town hall for America PAC, his Super PAC. The organization did not explain why the event didn't happen, though an attempt to hold such a livestream on Monday night was cut short because of tech issues , with Musk telling followers to listen to a new interview he recorded for Joe Rogan 's podcast instead. America PAC did, however, repost Musk's comments on X about a male "cavalry" coming to cast their ballots for Trump. Musk is slated to spend Tuesday evening with the candidate at Mar-a-Lago as election results come in.

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